Zohran Mamdani criticized using ambiguous budget figures as an excuse to raise taxes

He’s Zo crying wolf.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has “miraculously” received billions of dollars in the two weeks since he announced a doomsday budget – leaving the city’s residents to lash out at the reckless figures used to justify the democrats’ push to raise taxes.

The wannabe spendthrift mayor admitted Wednesday while testifying before the New York State Legislature that the growing budget deficit for this year and next fiscal year has been reduced from a doomsday estimate of $12 billion to $7 billion in less than two weeks.

“What we’ve seen since that press conference is not only an inflated economic forecast, and Wall Street bonuses, but also an aggressive austerity program, and the use of your savings,” Hizzoner said after his more than five hours of testimony on Tin Cup Day.

But insiders were left scratching their heads when his budget director, Sherif Soliman, revealed what the pot of money means to the city’s coffers.

This year, Soliman said revenues are understated by $2.4 billion, which will bridge the gap of $2.2 billion.

The respected budget added that next year’s revenue would come in at $4.8 billion more than previously released.

The additional billions in revenue is exactly what Gov. Kathy Hochul and other city insiders knew was coming this month as the books were not fully counted when Hizzoner held a news conference to raise the alarm about the budget gap.

The governor and others were left stunned by Mamdani’s continued increase in income tax by 2% for people making $1 million since the budget picture did not seem as bad as he said at the beginning.

“I can’t believe they tried to drag it out and expect anyone to believe that the situation miraculously fixed itself in two weeks,” another politco was angry. “No one is buying it.”

Another acknowledged that the city’s budget gap is “real” but “this statistic is not.”

“Unfortunately, for someone who came in promising to govern in such a different way, he is proving that in the second month in power he is playing the same games and using the same tricks as his predecessors.”

But the mysterious figures didn’t end there.

Even after accounting for $7.2 billion in additional tax revenue, only $3 billion was used to close the budget gap, as Mamdani said the director would release funds from reserves and a temporary savings account to help with the shortfall.

That leaves $4.2 billion in new revenue unaccounted for — at least until next February 17 when Mam’s limited administrative budget is due.

“I don’t understand how this includes requiring new taxes,” said one insider, adding, “Unless you spend billions more on pet programs.”

Former Mayor Eric Adams, who has been accused of cooking the revenue books more than once, even jumped to attack his successor.

“Four weeks later and Mayor Mamdani suddenly ‘gets’ $5 billion,” he said on social media. “Give him another month, maybe another $7 billion will come out.”

A City Hall spokesman did not respond to questions about how the budget figures were compiled.

Andrew Rein, president of the watchdog Citizens Budget Commission, said New Yorkers will likely have to wait until next week for answers.

“We need to see the numbers on Tuesday.”